Here's the nitty-gritty of how our day went today. Lots of things didn't get done, but we made progress. I always shoot high, anyway. My lists are always too long to ever complete. I'm working on making them more digestible (still). If you have read my blog for any length of time, you'll know that it is an area I've struggled with forEver!
A glimpse of our day*:
Morning
Up with Daddy to talk to him before he leaves for work briefly. Kids eat breakfast with him (6:30 AM). We all do some morning chores and I check email and do some goofing off on the computer (here's where I went wrong with the day... should have done my planning, prayer journal and praying first!). Oops.
School Starts/Prep
Kids shower and start school a few minutes late (8:08am). I print off their school assignment list.
Character (Mom and the Kids)
I'm learning to let go of the perfectionism and be happy when we get half of my long list checked off. I'm also learning (and the retreat this past weekend was a wonderful help) that I need to keep myself from getting mad, depressed, grumpy or upset when things don't go as planned. I guess that is called "being flexible". You would think I am flexible... and I do have a really spontaneous side; however, I tend to fall apart when our goals don't get accomplished. Super-mom syndrome. I'm beginning to claim victory over this area, though. We spent a large part of the last two days since I've been home working on HEART issues during school hours. Unforgiveness, anger, resentment, selfishness, pride, grumpiness, whining, and other nasty attitudes have reared their ugly heads between the kids and even with me. We've been working on instantly dealing with issues and praying for each other so that we can forgive each other and restore the good mood of the day. Trust me... the prayers work. It may take a few times (especially if you begin to really work hard on it)... because of course - if the devil sees you making progress, he's bound to jump on your back.
Bible
We read a great devotional today about a young girl in Pakistan that was brave enough to share her faith despite death threats (Jesus Freaks Vol. 2 by DC Talk). We read about leprosy in Leviticus. We wrote in our prayer journals... and we said a long prayer for all the things on our prayer list that we update each week. The kids took their memory cards (index cards) down from last week and we didn't get to do our new verse. I'll have them do that tomorrow. We also sang some hymns this morning (Morgan suggested this and picked the songs).
Math
We did an A Beka Math worksheet. We're doing review right now (first chapter or so in our new books is mostly review). Today's Math time went awry and we ended up spending over an hour on it. I have a dawdler that just didn't want to focus on the Math.
Morning Snack
Grapes and half of a muffin. I finally ate (forgot to eat breakfast earlier) last night's leftover rice. The kids fought with me for it and ended up nearly tackling each other on the stairs to get every last grain out of the bowl. We had a safety discussion and Mommy laid down the rules about no pushing, shoving, blocking, touching, passing, or otherwise bothering anyone on the stairs.
Writing/Penmanship
Morgan has a few pages left of last year's penmanship and she completed one of the pages today. Kaden finished his book last year, so he wrote five Bible verses in cursive instead. He managed to drag this subject out as well. We didn't get to our proofreading writing lesson, or our journal.
Reading
We read a few library books today that need to be returned tomorrow. Hopefully we will be picking up a whole new set of them tomorrow afternoon. I'm looking forward to being in our new unit and moving on. I do want to finish our read-aloud for this unit ("Around the World in 80 Days" ~ unabridged) before I return it. Looks like I'll have to renew it again. We're going to read the last of our library books tomorrow before we leave the house... and the ones we don't get to - "oh well!".
Geography
We finished our Visualize World Geography study on Japan yesterday, so today we were supposed to look at photos and plan a Japanese meal out that I could cook this weekend for them. However, we didn't get to this today. They did color a worksheet yesterday with all the provinces of Japan and they found the ancient capital city and the current capital city on the map. I'll probably look for some Japan books tomorrow at the library while I load up for our next unit. We did manage to re-pin the map to the school-room wall today, though... while looking for Guiana. Does that count?
Typing
Morgan got to her typing today. She did 18 wpm with 2 errors (98% accuracy) on Mavis Beacon. Kaden missed his, so he'll have to do it tomorrow (he was the one goofing off during Math time and didn't have time to do his typing by the time he finished his worksheets and got caught up).
Italian
Both of the kids did their online Rosetta Stone today. Daddy and Mommy are joining them to learn as they go. Daddy is great at languages and picks things up quickly. He learned French in high-school and still knows what many words mean. I did better in Spanish, but never finished learning it enough to converse. I'm really hoping to buy Rosetta Stone's Italian program (but who can afford 275?). Right now we are using an online library's free version, but it only goes up to a certain level. Maybe by Christmas time I can afford to buy the full versions so we can get really serious about learning.
Lunch
Baked Potatoes
Lifeskills ">'Chores' kind of go without saying at a homeschool house (since of course, the house gets much messier if you are THERE all day). The kids helped me clean up dishes and the kitchen, take care of the cat, and do laundry and put it away today. They mostly do their chores before school starts (at 8am), during their lunch hour, and right before and after dinner. Of course, we do lots of things for school AFTER dinner... so I am not sure you could call that "after school" at our house. Tonight, they did both Italian and Art after dinner.
Science
Other than tid-bits in our books about flight, birds, and planes that we are finishing up... we didn't do any extra science experiments or reading. We do use a textbook from A Beka for science to fill in any gaps I may leave with the unit study method we use. However, I have found that it is not necessary. The kids are usually way ahead of their game.
History
No textbook today. We're about to watch "The Spirit of St. Louis" and "Apollo 13", though (probably Thursday, since we have church tomorrow and the library... and we'll be visiting a friend). We also had a book to read about Amelia Earhart (which I think the kids have read before at some point in history since it is our own book)... but we didn't get to it before Daddy came home and will have to read it tomorrow.
Music
Just some singing this morning. Oh, and we talked about a 'fermata' on the hymn music sheet we were singing from. I couldn't remember what the Italian name for it was. I called it a "hold" and a "Bird's Eye" (less formal names). I explained what it was for as we sang our song. How is that for some music rhythm tutoring "off-the-cuff"? Hopefully tomorrow after church, Chickie will give Kaden his piano lesson.
PE
We'll get a bunch of PE in Friday at our park day with our co-op, but I sure was hoping to take a walk or swim this week. Maybe Thursday. We didn't even get out to check the mail (which requires a walk around the block).
KONOS
We did no KONOS other than the books we read that were on subject. We were so bad today. Not one single KONOS unit study activity got done. We had plans to draw in our journals, discuss things, read a poem, read a Roman Myth, and finish our vocabulary up (if Kaden could find his - he lost it before the weekend and we looked everywhere yesterday and couldn't find it). This is the kind of thing that really gets me upset (when plans fail).
Dinner
Cajun pan-fried fish, baked green beans with butter and brown sugar sauce, butter beans and Mac-n-cheese. We had a quick dinner tonight. Nothing to write home about.
Art
Tonight the kids did a repeat of GeeArt Lesson #3. We (I say 'we' because I'm learning along with them and it is our favorite part of school) learned about layering in our computer canvas, using structure - color - and lighting to show "emphasis", and how the eye is drawn to a certain spot on the canvas. Kaden ran off afterwards to play video games with Daddy, but Morgan spent the rest of the evening until bed time using the computer to create one of her GeeArt challenges (projects that relate to the lesson). Tomorrow we're going to actually get out the messy paints. Yipee!
Bedtime
The kids went to bed at around 10:30 PM. That means tomorrow will come really early. We were having so much fun with computer Art (Morgan and I) that we lost track of time. I was tired at around 9pm, though... so I should have listened to my body and told the kids to go get their nightgowns on when the getting was good. There's something Mommy can work on for tomorrow.
Plans
I'm up at 11:58 finishing this post so I can blog it tomorrow (and while I'm blogging it, tomorrow comes!). The rest of the family is snug in their beds and sound asleep. Before I go to bed, I have to sit down and do a little preparation for tomorrow's school day and pick up some messes. We're going to have a short day tomorrow with our afternoon taken up with a social visit, the library, dinner and church.
Finally, Mommy goes to bed
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz (1:02 AM - I'm guessing here!) I'll be up at 6:30 AM today.... but I certainly won't be blogging! Too much to do, too little time... (less time at the computer will certainly improve tomorrow, don't you think?)
*Of course, this isn't really a typical day. They are all different. That is the beauty of homeschooling. God always keeps you on your toes!
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